Isaiah 8:19-20And when they shall say to you, Seek to them that have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep, and that mutter…

In the years which preceded the French Revolution, Cagliostro was the companion of princes — at the dissolution of paganism, the practisers of curious arts, the witches and the necromancers, were the sole objects of reverence in the known world; and so before the Reformation, archbishops and cardinals saw an inspired prophetess in a Kentish servant girl; Oxford heads of colleges sought out heretics with the help of astrology; Anne Boleyn blessed a bason of rings, her royal fingers pouring such virtue into the metal that no disorder could resist it; Wolsey had a magic crystal, and Thomas Cromwell, while in Wolsey's household, "did haunt to the company of a wizard." These things were the counterpart of a religion which taught that slips of paper, duly paid for, could secure indemnity for sin.